Venture Intelligence, which tracks private company financials, transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) and their valuations in India, says that its data shows that between 2013 and 2017, One97 Communications (Paytm’s parent company) got $360 million in funding. FreeCharge received $113 million, and MobiKwik $75 million. There were six deals in 2013; 11 in 2014; 24 in 2015; and six in 2016. The deal amounts — $14 million, $127 million, $251 million and $369 million for the four years respectively – show that the individual ticket sizes are getting larger.

“Mobile payment was a key area of interest to PE-VC investors in India even before demonetization. By making adoption of digital payments much more widely accepted, demonetization has only made the sector more attractive,” says Arun Natarajan, founder of Venture Intelligence. “However, given the rapid growth and hyper-funding of companies like Paytm, newer entrants have to demonstrate clearly differentiated offerings to convince investors.” (Prior to the payment bank licenses, mobile wallets came in categories which offered less operational flexibility and, thus, scope for differentiation.)